Thursday, July 05, 2007

What an encouraging email!

This is an email from a host of one of the camps the Ireland team is working with:

Dear Brandon,

I got your email address from the UPC World Deputation blog that theIrish team told me about. I hear you are the guy to talk to if Iwanted to send feedback on the UPC students back home ahead of them.

I am on staff at a small Presbyterian church in the suburbs of Dublinand late in the day, the Presbyterian Church in Ireland got their acttogether and let me know in advance that I was getting a team of fourAmerican university students to help me with my 3-Day youth outreachcamps in socially deprived areas of the Irish midlands.

It turns out that these four students, Calvin, Kelly, Trevor andCamille have been a terrific bonus to our summer ministry at a crucialtime. We were a little worried in advance because PCI had not given usa lot of forward information. We simply didn't know what to expectwhen we went to pick these guys up off the train from Belfast. Butthey have been here for a week now and we are just thrilled that theycame, so thank you for sending them.

They had an excellent attitude to all the different roles we droppedthem into- from helping out with our Sunday service to having patiencewith the Irish weather as it rained our camps out right through tomixing brilliantly with our congregation. They were genuine servantsto us. Calvin's energy, Camille's questions, Trevor's sense of humourand Kelly's maturity shone through over the last few days. Our campswere not easy jobs for short term missionaries like them but they justgot stuck in and were eager to help out every way they could. It was apleasure to work with them.

There was nothing dramatic or sexy about the ministry we were doingthis week but strategically for the development of our littlecongregation and over a longer term, for the development of theKingdom in Ireland, this kind of day-to-day work is crucial. Your guysmade that work a lot more effective.

Today they moved on into their next assignment with our parent church,Lucan Presbyterian, where they will be for two weeks. It was greatthat I could endorse them so fully to my colleagues down the road.

I hope that all of your Deputation teams are working out so well.Thank you for running the program. Please pass our gratitude on to thefolks back in Seattle when you get the chance.